The IndyCar community was upset when the news came through that Bridgestone Firestone were not going to renew their contract once the contract ended in 2011. IndyCar has been supplied with tires from Firestone since 1996. Negotiations to reach an agreement that both parties were satisfied with took place over a period of a week and a new contract has been finalized that will see Firestone continue to be the tire supplier for IndyCar until 2013.

Auto racing is considered to be among the fastest growing sports, with over 78 million loyal supporters and raking in about $3 million in licensed product sales on an annual basis. Clearly NASCAR translates into very big business. With this in mind, in 2004, Professors Jon Ackley and Michael W. Pitts introduced an honors course for the study of â€œThe Business of NASCARâ€ that runs every fall semester at the Virginia Commonwealth University.